Our September panel aims to delve into the opportunity to grow outward and to capital raise in three distinct and interrelated markets: Australia/APAC, US and India. We look at private equity environments, trends and capital markets from three perspectives within these markets: B/C round entrepreneurs, B/C round investors, and practitioners from these markets. 

We start the discussion with an entrepreneur who has taken a foreign company public in Australia. Ultimately, Australia presents a brilliant exit opportunity for growth companies that would normally need to achieve much greater scale in the US and liquid EU markets. India’s top private equity and tax law firm will paint the landscape of APAC opportunities and the Australian inbound investor experience as well as the recent India growth and acquisition trends into Australia. We’ll speak to Australian practitioners, who will cover the legal environment in Australia and trends in the market. And, we’ll complete the circle by speaking with Australian entrepreneurs who have raised capital through public and private Australian markets as well as Indian private equity. These Australian entrepreneurs seek global markets and global capital expansion. 

International Perspective looking at Australia:

Ron Meeusen MD|Global Agtechfund & Gregg Solomon MD PE fund|Touchstone Group LLC
Ron is a Ph.D. plant physiologist who spent 25 years leading corporate R&D in the crop protection and seeds industry. Started in 2008 today Cultivian Sandbox Ventures is investing from its third fund, having supported 22 Agtech startups over 10 years. Ron chairs the board of Agrivida Inc., and serves on the boards of Asilomar Bio, Vestaron Corp, enEvolv, and AbCelex.

Ruchir Sinha| Co-Head Private Equity and M&A  and Nishith Desai & Associates                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Ruchir co-heads Private Equity and M&A Practice and heads the Real Estate and Structured Finance Practice at the firm. He was nominated amongst the top 3 lawyers in India (under 35 category) at IDEX Legal Awards. Several of his transactions in structured finance and private equity have been nominated as Most Innovative by Financial Times, London in 2015 and 2016.

Shilpa Kulkarni | Zodius KKR related Growth Fund
Shilpa has been the co-founder and Managing Director of Zodius Funds. Shilpa sits on the Board of Zivame, Freshmenu, Culture Machine and Allygrow Technologies. Shilpa has been a part of the founding team at WNS and has played senior management roles at the company. Prior to WNS she was a venture investor at eVentures India where her investments included Mentorix (sold to Lionbridge), Intigma (sold to Emptoris). Shilpa began her career as an Investment Banker with JP Morgan Chase in New York.

Omesh Sharma| CFO of Pivotal Systems Corporation
Based in the US, Omesh serves as CFO of Pivotal Systems Corporation, a US based company, that has successfully listed in ASX in July 2018. Omesh has held senior financial and management positions with global organisations like Nortel across US, India and APAC. Omesh holds Master’s degrees in Finance, Business Administration and economics from Northeastern University.

Australian Perspective for Overseas Investors:

Clark Morgan| Vice Chairman of Crestone Wealth Management
As Crestone’s Vice Chairman and Head of Advisory, Clark brings to the firm a rare combination of industry expertise, strategic insight, and management skill. Clark was a member of the Executive Boards of both McIntosh Securities and Merrill Lynch Australia. Clark joined UBS Wealth Management in 2001—where he has spent the last fifteen years in roles including Managing Director, CEO and Vice Chairman. Clark was member of the UBS Australia Executive Committee.

Will Health|Melbourne Partner King & Wood Mallesons                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Will Health practices in corporate law, focusing in public and private M&A, capital raising & joint ventures. He worked for Freshfields in Asia for four years where he advised Japanese, Chinese and multinational companies investing in Asian region and beyond. Will advises clients in sectors including financial services, TMT, consumer, energy/resources and agribusiness. Will is a senior fellow at the Melbourne Law School where he teaches an LLM course in corporate law. He was awarded two masters degrees in law (BCL/MPhil) with highest honours from the University of Oxford, where he was a Menzies Memorial Scholar in Law. 

View from Australian Growth Companies:

Robert Read Executive Director & CEO MedAdvisor
Prior to taking the position as CEO of MedAdvisor, Robert was Managing Director of the Australian Private Equity arm of Harbert Management Corporation, a US based multi-asset class fund manager. During his time with Harbert Robert also served as interim CEO of an investee. Robert spent the early years of his career in consulting before moving to senior venture capital and private equity positions.

DD Saxena, CEO Robe Riverina Oils & BioEnergy
Recognized as Asia Pacific Entrepreneur of the Year by The Non-Resident Indian award, DD Saxena has been acknowledged for building the $150 million dollar oilseed plan in rural Australia. DD Saxena has lead US$1 billion division of Indonesia conglomerate Bakrie Group in the past but is now involved in entrepreneurial activities such as co-founding a Bangalore-based company called Unibic Biscuits among other things.

This event will be free for charter members, members and guests. Ticket for non-member is 50 AUD. Many thanks to our sponsor, Crestone Wealth Management, for making this event happen.